How to Run a Corporate Blog? 5 Tips to Go

Well, before asking the question how, let’s answer another reasonable question why, or what for do you need a corporate blog? The reason number one is customer engagement. A good blog always matters, because your potential customers consult it, trust it and raise traffic. Blogs became essential social media hubs, bringing ‘new blood’ to your website and a perfect feedback machine for your audience.

It’s funny to read a blog about how to run a successful blog, isn’t it? Take it as a first step. Then make sure you’re well-prepared and ready to dive into this mess. By saying this, I assume that you have already solved the technical issues: talked to your IT guy or a website developer and chose the platform for your blog. There are numerous e-Commerce platforms, such as Wix, Shopify, Weebly, WordPress and Magento, and many of them provide extensive blogging opportunities. But now, let’s speak about your blog content:

1. Write as a human being

I understand that you have a corporate policy, voice-and-tone guide, and by no means I invoke you to violate it. However, it’s always a good idea to add some friendly insights to the way you talk to your audience. No one wants to read promotional articles, irritating us from every corner of our desktop. Be honest, share some useful content, expert opinion and advice that can help your customers in their business and life.

2. Don’t be afraid of long posts and tell stories

The time when people said ’the shorter the better’ referring to the internet content has gone. People don’t want to waste their time to a dozen 300 words blah blah articles, dreaming to kill the author, but they are absolutely ready to dedicate 7 minutes of their time (according to the resent estimates of the most popular content) to some professional blog posts, providing deep insights into the technology or business practice they need.

However, to write a blog post is not just to enumerate some key facts, even if they form the very essence of the idea you wanted to share. Become a good narrator, tell the whole story till the end and trust me, you’ll see the dramatic rise of engagement.

3. Promise to give something from the very beginning

You may have a brilliant content, written by a brilliant expert, but if the title fails – the blog post fails too. Unless it is catchy, you’ll screw up. If you want your readers open more than just a headline, make sure it works for you the way it should. Don’t make the title too abstractive, even if you think it sounds attractive. According to the recent surveys, people prefer headlines starting with numbers, for example, “10 ways to…”, or at least, “How to…”. It doesn’t mean that you should use these options in every single post, but at least you can imagine what people actually want.

4. Build your online community and advertise your blog

Share your blog on Facebook, Twitter, Google + and other social media networks, popular among your target audience. Put together a press release, featuring the wonderful news about launching your corporate blog. If you want to grow your followers quickly, think of Google AdWords campaigns or Facebook ads.

5. Communicate with other bloggers

Bloggers are real power today. Be smart and build up connections with the influential bloggers with huge audiences to get them talk about your blog. The more often they refer to your posts, the more backlinks you get and boost your traffic.

In this short blog post, I’ve managed to cover only 5 tips that can help a new corporate blogger to start his long blogging journey, but there are much more things you should find out by yourself. Share your thoughts and provide your own tips in comments to help everyone, who is struggling with the same issue right now. You have only two options ahead: to make your corporate blog an effective tool brining real profit to your business, or to write a boring piece of content once a week with your mom being the only loyal reader.

Author bio: Alexandra Pankratyeva is a marketing specialist and a professional translator. For the last five years she’s been writing corporate blogs, website content and analytical articles on e-Commerce, technology solutions, etc. for different companies, including Amasty.